VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1949-1954 52 chev 216 oil feed to tappits/valves

Hi,
I have a 52 chev 216 that has the short sideplate over the lifters and the tappit oil feed pipe runs from the back of the engine behind the short sideplate next to the last valve lifter.It has been fully rebuilt.
I have filled it with oil and have been using a screwdriver in a drill on the end of the oil pump to prime the oil up .Yes,I am turning it the right direction as I have removed a couple of temporary plugs where the oil pressure line fits and there is plenty of oil.
I can not get oil through up to the tappits.Have undone the pipe and removed the fitting at the back of the engine in where the valve lifters are and still no oil.
Is this fed from the camshaft rear bearing?
Does the camshaft have to be turning for oil to pass into the pipe?Or have I a blockage,possibly a oil hole doesnt line up in a cam bearing?.
Any easy way to check or will I have to drop off the gearbox & clutch housing,pull the camshaft and the rear camshaft plug in the block? Or will I have to drop the sump?
Help please.
Thanks.

Rusted,
I don't recall any 216s with a short side plate.

Did you put oil in the crankcase (sump)?

Douse everything with a generous amount of Marval Mystory oil and crank it up. You should get oil to the rockers right away. If not, shut it down. Go get a beer and think about it some. You got a major problem.

Good luck,
Charlie

52 engine with short side plate is most likely a 235 with hydraulic lifters and used in the Power glide application. If you are using a battery powered drill try a full 110 volt drill to drive the pump my battery drill would not pump the oil up either.

If this car was Canadian or at least the engine it will be a 216 with the short side cover.

The engine with the oil line in the push rod compartment feeds the rocker arms from a passage that is tapped into th rear cam bearing passage. Not necessary for the cam to be indexed to the oil feed.

As a test you could remove the line from the lower rear point. Should be possible to blow air into the line and have it exit at the rocker arms. Should be possible to blow air at low pressure into the fitting and have it back-up into the oil pan via the oil pump. If it dosen't blow back into the pump I would suspect the problem is in the cam feed area.

Hi,
It is a 52 Canadian splash fed 216 with solid lifters.
Yes,the sump is full of oil.I am using a battery operated drill to turn the pump.Will try an electric drill with more rpm.
Just unsure if the oil will flow to the rockers via the drilling in the camshaft with the motor stationary or if the oil will only flow when things are turning or if the oil passage is blocked alltogether.

Keep us posted

Hi Chevgene,
The email you sent didnt come through properly.Can you resend again please.
Regards
Paul

Hello,

I have fitted a gauge and I am getting 45lb pressure with the drill in the distributer hole and still no oil coming out the tapppit oil gallery in the block.

Thankyou Chevgene for the information you emailed.

Will pull the camshaft out and run the drill again to check the camshaft bearings are getting oil.
I suspect there is no hole in the rear cam bearing into the tappit gallery.

Who did the engine rebuild? Have you spoken with them?

Bob

Hello,
I dont know who rebuilt it.I purchased it of Eb=y from a restorer in Cairns at the top east coast of Australia ,some 2500 km away.We dropped the sump to confirm it had been rebuilt.He had purchased it from someone in Allis Springs in the centre of Australia who had it rebuilt in Adelaide the bottom of Australia.
This motor has travelled more miles sitting in the back of a ute going from one person to the next than most restored chev trucks do in miles in a lifetime.
However it is going to be used by me even if I have to pull it down and recheck everything.

Best of luck in getting this gremlin figured out.

Bob

Hi,
I have dropped the sump and pulled the camshaft.The cam bearing at the rear has been drilled for the oil to enter the gallery for the rocker feed.It has no machined groove to link the rocker feed hole in the cam bearing to the oil inlet from the mains.
I will have to start the engine in the test frame which will pressurize the bearings and with the camshaft turning hopefully will allow the oil to enter the rocker feed hole and have enough pressure to feed the tappits.

The cam bearings are new.
I have 45psi oil pressure when using the electric drill in the distributer hole.

If the cam bearing has been drilled .... isn't that an indication that the incorrect cam bearing was installed?

Bob

Hello Bob
Yes you are probably right but what has been used?I wouldnt know unless I removed all the bearings.The camshaft has been ground on the bearing journals so there is no guarantee it was ground to suit chevrolet specifications.

I have had the motor running.It sounds good .Oil pressure is 25lbs but still no oil in the tappit line so I will pull everything down again and cut a groove in the rear cam bearing linking the 2 oil holes together.
I have a old military 216 and knocked out the cam bearing and it has the groove so I will carefully modify mine.

What does your 1949-1953 shop manual say about the oil feed to the rockers? are you sure that oil is getting to the left side of the motor?

His rocker arms do not get oil from the left side of the engine. He has a Canadian 216 (1952) and the oil is fed from the rear cam passage like a 1950 and up 235.\Its a low side cover 216.

Remove the oil line fitting from the lower rear corner of the push rod compartment and poke a wire in the hole to see if it is clean and open.
I believe the oil may not pass thru the grove in the cam bearing but rather the passage branches off from the passage running between the main bear oil grove and the cam bearing......Or the main bearing location for the oil feed could be blocked.
This all could be tested with air pressure.

The oil pressure mentioned seems a little high for a 216, unless that is only when it is cold. I would expect for it to drop to around 14 after a minute or two.

I have the Canadian shop manual which covers this motor. Here is a quote from the manual:
"Oil for lubrication of the valve mechanism of the (1950-51)235 engine, and the 1951 Series 216 engine in after jobs,is tapped from the rear camshaft bearing (fig. 5). An oil passage drilled through the tappet ledge intersects the oil groove of the rear camshaft bearing. An oil tube connected to this drilled passage extends forward in the push rod compartment to the center and then upward to a fitting between the twp hollow rocker shafts ...".

With hot oil of the proper viscosity the oil pressure will not go over about 17 pounds at 3600 RPM. I suspect he has never had the oil hot during his experiments.

Hello,
I havnt had a chance to pull the motor down again.
I do know that the oil wasnt getting through the rear camshaft bearing offtake passage for the rockers.When I had it pulled down a couple of weeks ago,the offtake passage was drilled directly through the wall of the camshaft bearing.When the camshaft was removed,there is no machined groove inside the camshaft bearing linking the oil feed in from the mains to the rocker offtake.The camshaft journals have been reground so I have no idea what bearings may have been substituted in place of the chevrolet ones.
When I had the engine running it was only for 20 seconds,enough to confirm oil pressure at the gauge and the lack of oil at the rocker offtake at the rear main.I had no water in the motor as it is sitting in a home made stand and I didnt want to run it too long incase there was other problems.

The plan when I have time is to drop the sump and pull the camshaft and used compressed air as suggested to confirm all the camshaft bearings are getting oil along with the mains and then carefully cut a small groove on the inside rear camshaft bearing face linking the two passages together.I have pulled an old rear camshaft bearing from a canadian military 216 and this has the groove in it.
Will let you know what happens in the next couple of weeks.
Thankyou all for your help.